With more than 82,000 square kilometres, Chongqing is the world’s largest city by surface area and has over 30 million inhabitants. The metropolis has now gained a new landmark with ‘Raffles City Chongqing’. The project, which was developed by CapitaLand Group, was completed in 2019 after seven years of construction. ‘Raffles City Chongqing’ comprises six 250-metre southern skyscrapers, and two northern 350-metre skyscrapers. Apartments, offices, a shopping centre, a hotel and additional mixed-purpose facilities are located on an area of 1.12 million square metres.

‘The Crystal’ bridge – the world’s tallest ‘horizontal skyscraper’ – is an extraordinary feat of engineering. The construction measures 300 metres in length, 32.5 metres in width and 26.5 metres in height. It lies across four 250-metre skyscrapers and connects to the two neighbouring 350-metre skyscrapers via additional bridges. ‘The Crystal’ contains a gallery, a club house and much more, including a protruding glass-floor observation deck at each end, which gives visitors far-reaching views across the city. ‘Raffles City Chongqing’ was designed by the world-renowned Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. He was responsible for another project that also incorporated fischer facade systems: Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. 

Clad in glass and the red-coloured Red Sesame granite natural stone, the podium facades are a significant project component of ‘Raffles City Chongqing’. They simultaneously provide a visual and protective function to the building. Approximately 300,000 units of fischer’s Zykon panel anchors FZP II guarantee a firm hold between the natural stone panels and the structures. “Our undercut anchors offer higher loading values and a more distinguished look to the building compared to alternative solutions such as edge fastenings”, says Ralf Weber, Market Manager fischer facade systems. The FZP II anchors provide a form-fit fastening without expansion pressure in the conical undercut drill hole. “This allows them to be positioned in the 1/5 point of the facade panel”, Ralf Weber adds. “Our undercut anchors thereby achieve lower slab bending moments and higher load-bearing capacities. This allowed thinner and larger facade panels to be installed during construction of projects such as ‘Raffles City Chonqging’”. Simple and fast installation also reduces construction time and project costs, the facade expert adds. “Over the building’s continued life cycle, lower maintenance requirements, the long service life and high energy efficiency increase its economic efficiency and provide a positive ecological balance”, Weber continues. Undercut technology also offers optical advantages. “By concealing the panel anchoring on the reverse side, the fastening points themselves are not visible in the joints”, Weber states. “This results in a particularly harmonious facade that gives structures and landmarks across the globe their flawless appearance”.